Wednesday, September 1, 2010

The Wilder Side

It's been a busy week here on the farm. What with basking in the record-breaking hot temperatures, chiding Herself into womaning the keyboard and taking turns with Jack in removing each others fly masks, I'm on the go from dawn to dusk. Not too busy, however, to notice the other entities whose activities cross over into our lives.

The first is a young bear. I have not met him personally, yet, but our paths may cross as he roams the area in search of room and board. He ran into, almost literally, a friend of ours when said friend was driving to work a block away from here. The young bear ran up out of a ditch, clutching a fish in his mouth. Human and bear veered frantically in different directions as they tried to avoid each other. The fish was dropped and each of them staggered off, rattled by the near miss. I feel very badly for the bear. He's new to the concept of making a living in the wilds and who knows how long he had to work at it before he caught dinner. I hope this doesn't discourage him and drive him into the arms of the local garbage cans (wait, do garbage cans have arms?). One more thing for me to brood about.

Next we have a frog. We know it is a lady frog because she had her four or five thousand children in our water trough. Of course Herself discovered this as, without her spectacles, she was emptying the water preparatory to scrubbing the trough. OoooooooNooooooo she wailed in her usual grating tones. As she stared at the puddle on the ground, a handsome frog hopped out from under the tilted trough. Although I was a distance away, I spotted it immediately and made my way over. Meanwhile, Herself was apologizing to the frog for the misunderstanding about her extensive family and offering her a light misting with the hose. The frog looked unconvinced and lay flat on the ground but as she felt the water droplets she sat bolt upright, blinking slowly and gulping.

I eased over carefully so as not to scare her and sloooooowly lowered my nose. Imagine my surprise when she suddenly sprang upwards with a mightly leap, nearly lodging herself in my left nostril. I leapt backwards, sitting down with an abrupt thud. The woman made strangled gasping noises which might have been a crude attempt at laughter. I stalked off, my dignity in tatters. Since then, the frog comes out every day for a shower and the woman makes a large puddle in front of the trough for her to lie in. Herself has strict instructions to move any further tadpoles into a safer setting. I will keep watch.

The third new player is an arachnid with argyle-patterned hairy legs who has spun a web of such engineering genius in the run-in door that it will soon be blocked entirely. Of course, it's an ideal place to snare a fat fly or moth and the spider is growing stouter by the day. When an insect lands, the spider rushes over and snips the victim out of the web, folding it neatly and carrying it away. Later the holes are darned over and the integrity of the web restored. Now he/she is spinning out long guy wires that anchor the web even further afield.

Between the frog and the spider, my days are overflowing with scientific field work. I don't mind. Soon enough the landscape will be white and frozen, with nothing stirring but the wind. Jack and I have at least half our winter coats grown in in anticipation.

14 comments:

Sheaffer, you are a naturalist at heart, aren't you? I am getting ready to begin the donkey book The Woman recommended, and I keep thinking how absolutely delightful in every way it would be to take a trek with you and Rafer Johnson. I feel this might be in the stars. I wonder if The Woman would like to go too?

HAy Sheaffer - OMG - what is a frog? I have never seen one. Spiders - yes we have them here in the desert - but they keep clear of my paddock area. I do hear mom scream from time to time = yelling - go away spider - ewww the web is stuck on me - eww - get it off. I just turn away and snicker to myself at what a wussy she is. Then she bring out the sprayer - and sprays the house the crevices with some stuff - I guess to kill them. I keep telling her to stop it - they eat bugs - but she is a wussy like I said. Well its has cooled off here - low 90's in the day and 50's at night - weird for August/September. Flies are down a bit - still need my mask!

Buddy, a frog is many things. Amphibious, small, slippery, camouflage coloured and altogether quite charming in a ribbity sort of way. We also have toads but they look more like old, dried out leather luggage. Do you have desert toads at your place? Lizards? I like the idea of having a lizard to observe but we are not in an area that lizards would call home (they don't like snow either, it seems). Your woman's reaction ot spiders is quite common - just try to look the other way when she comes unglued and does her spider dance. She can't help herself.

Gazelle, I know, it seems unfair that a juvenile bear should just figure out the challenge of fishing and then be startled into dropping his catch. We too wondered if he thought to go back and retreive it...I am prepared to defend my personal frog to the death if needs be, bear or no bear.

hey Sheaffer....I found a new blog today...well, new to me anyway....and..... the reason I noticed it was the pictures of donkeys!

It tells about a Donkey Sanctuary in Britain... apparently one of several started by a special lady....

http://wherebeechmastfalls.blogspot.com/

check out the pics on this blog.... and.... I'm off to check out whether the sanctuary has a blog or home page..... talk to ya later......

Veexx

oh, and....I put the pics of Bubba and Mercutio on my blog last week.... for Wordless Wednesday.... with no words ..of course....hahahha...... must tell folks on my next post who those donkeys are. I with they were mine and could hang out on my lawn...mowing.....

Buddy, little brown lizards, eh? I like the sound of those - especially as they are fellow lovers of desert conditions. I could see myself studying them for hours on end. Both of us baking in the hot, hot sun...

Vee, thank you for the link to that most enchanting blog. The sanctuary of which she writes apparently has three thousand donkeys! I think we should all charter a sailing ship, or something else, maybe an airship, and trek over for a visit. And of course Dougie Donk is just a step away from there, so we would drop in on him, too. I have always wanted to see England, in spite of it's reputation for mold.

Been meaning to come on for ages & say that we have frogs in Scotland, but not bears. They sound scarey!

The Donkey Sanctuary is in Devon, which is several hundred miles away from my home - much too far for me to call in. The people and the terrain are very similar, although the climate is rather kinder in Devon.

My woman tells me that she bought me from an associate organisation, so I can only sing the praises of the work they do. There are so many good people out there.

Gazelle, I have pointed this out to the woman and my tone was bitter and resentful. She says Annabelle is standing in the new "Gallery" area but I believe her to be in a house of some sort. Benches? Pictures on the wall? I rest my case. For now.

Dougie, I'm pleased to hear you have frogs of your own. I very much hope they have a subtle heathery/tartan pattern that allows them to blend in to the landscape. Thank goodness for donkey sanctuaries everywhere - I can't imagine how horrible life would be otherwise for donkeys like yourself and Jack. You've landed on all four feet and have also found yourself a bear-free environment. Just be sure to remind your humans everyday how much you have improved their life - maybe the firefighter will break down and give you his "working" hat. I have shown the one he sent me to everyone who visits and their are most impressed.